Ego-document

How it is used

Diaries and autobiographical writings are common examples; self-presentation still requires source criticism.

Example sentences

1. The diary serves as an ego-document for the merchant's changing ambitions.

   The writer's self-understanding becomes part of the evidence.

2. The historian compared this ego-document with letters written to officials.

   Different audiences can produce different presentations of the same self.

Common collocations

• an ego-document
• study ego-documents

Related terms

• primary sourceEvidence created at the time being studied or by people who witnessed it, such as letters, diaries, official records, photographs or objects.
• biasA one-sided view that makes a source or a writer favour one person, group or explanation, so that the account is not fully balanced or complete.

More terms: Sources and Archives

• secondary source
• archive
• manuscript
• census
• chronicle
• source criticism
• oral history
• inscription
• provenance
• archivist
• palaeography
• diplomatics